'Ready to Read' gives kids boost

Saturday

Oct 12, 2013 at 12:01 AMOct 12, 2013 at 9:28 AM

Jessi Rodriguez had mixed feelings as she approached the Whitehall town house. Thursday was the last of six visits with Zae'dyn and Zae'briana Jones-Stancell, rambunctious preschoolers who run out to greet her and show off new toys. "This is a very special day, you guys," Rodriguez announced as they approached this final time. "You get to pick your own books out."

Dean Narciso, The Columbus Dispatch

Jessi Rodriguez had mixed feelings as she approached the Whitehall town house. Thursday was the last of six visits with Zae’dyn and Zae’briana Jones-Stancell, rambunctious preschoolers who run out to greet her and show off new toys.

“This is a very special day, you guys,” Rodriguez announced as they approached this final time. “ You get to pick your own books out.”

Rodriguez, 23, is one of a dozen Ready to Read specialists with Columbus Metropolitan Library whose job includes finding at-risk families and sparking an interest in reading.

The outreach workers — a hybrid of educator, librarian and social worker — have a real challenge: Studies by the Ohio Department of Education show that half of new kindergarteners in some neighborhoods aren’t considered ready to start school.

Rodriguez travels neighborhoods where taking a child to the library isn’t second nature. So she goes where the families are. On Thursday, in addition to the Jones-Stancell home, she visited a welfare-benefits center, a mobile-home park and the home of a single mother in Franklinton.

The Whitehall family was referred to the program from Kinship Care, which provides financial assistance to relatives who care for children. In this case, the children’s primary caregiver is their great-grandmother, 64-year-old Evelyn Jones.

On Rodriguez’s first visit — funding limits the number of monthly visits to six — she noticed plenty of toys in the home, but no books or puzzles. Since then, the change has been remarkable.

On Thursday, 3-year-old Zae’dyn considered a picture book, lifting a flap to reveal a black cat. Then he noticed a Winnie the Poo h title, calling out “Tigger” and pointing. The bookmobile is stocked with literary distractions. Rodriguez tries to keep him focused.

Zae’dyn and his 23-month-old sister, known as Brie, have benefited, said their mom.

“Before, they would point and grunt and pull my hand,” said their mother, Antoinette Jones, 23. “ Now, they’re verbalizing, telling me what they ate. Now they bring the books to me and want to read.”

The program has had an impact on mother as well as children. “You want to read? I don’t even read,” Jones said, describing her initial reaction. “But okay, let’s do this.”

The 4-year-old Ready to Read program costs taxpayers about $1 million a year, said Ben Zenitsky, library spokesman. It serves low-income families in the Northland, Whitehall, Linden, Westland and Parsons Avenue/Weinland Park neighborhoods and the Groveport-Madison school district.

“People love the library,” said Zenitsky, “having someone from the library come into their home rather than someone from children services.”

Public funding is supplemented with donations and grants.

A $100,000 grant in April from JP Morgan Chase has allowed four workers to focus on Linden.

Another grant of almost $250,000, from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, will allow the library to expand to 12 visits with 375 4-year-olds during the next three years.

Still, serving up to 300 families per year isn’t enough. Some homes lack windows or furniture and may have a dozen occupants, said Sarah Mackey, Ready to Read manager. “They have very few, if any, age-appropriate books.

“We see people dealing with survival every day,” Mackey said. “They’re dealing with today and tomorrow. Kindergarten seems like a lifetime away.”

As the bookmobile prepared to leave Whitehall on Thursday, the Jones-Stancell kids clutched their books and ran around in circles.

With a wide smile, Rodriguez called out: “Will you do me a favor?”

Zae’dyn stopped to listen.

“Keep on reading.”

@DeanNarciso

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.